Burma

[bur-muh]

noun

1. a country in Southeast Asia, renamed Myanmar in 1989.

Burma

/ ˈbɜːmə /

noun

1. the former official name (until 1989, though still widely used) of Myanmar

Burma

1. Republic in Southeast Asia, now officially known as Myanmar, bordered by Bangladesh, India, and the Bay of Bengal to the west; China to the north and northeast; Laos and Thailand to the east; and the Andaman Sea to the south. Rangoon is its capital and largest city.

Usage

See Myanmar.

Run by its military in the 1970s and 1980s, Burma saw its economy decline. Free elections in 1990 were won by the main opposition party, but the military government refused to relinquish its powers.

During World War II, the Allies and Japanese troops fought intense campaigns over control of the Burma Road, a vital supply link between China and India.

Under British control until 1948, it then became an independent republic.

Example Sentences

“His own biography — born in India, sent to Burma as a young soldier, doing what he did there and being ashamed of it — drew him closer to my own experience,” Peck says.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Her late father served in Burma in what was then the British Indian Army.

Read more on BBC

Sai and his wife decided to leave Thailand as they were worried of being deported back to Myanmar, also known as Burma, where Sai believes he will be persecuted for his activism against the junta.

Read more on BBC

Royal Navy veteran Alfred Conway, from Lincolnshire, watched as his great-grandchildren laid a wreath on the Burma Thailand Railway memorial at the Arboretum.

Read more on BBC

Its history is short: it has only existed since 2005, raised out of the flatlands by the then military rulers of Myanmar, which was previously known as Burma.

Read more on BBC